Chapter 5 - Helena Costello
Silas listened without interrupting.
Then he said, “You poisoned him.”
Victor closed his eyes.
Khloe held Matteo’s hands so he wouldn’t sense the tension.
Helena’s voice remained calm through the speaker.
“You always were dramatic.”
“Did you poison my son?”
“I protected this family.”
“He’s six.”
“He is an heir.”
Silas looked like he might crush the phone.
Helena continued.
“You disappeared into business, Silas. I raised that boy while you played king.”
“You hurt him.”
“I corrected a vulnerability.”
Khloe couldn’t stay quiet.
“He’s a child, not a balance sheet.”
Silence.
Then Helena asked, “Who is that?”
Silas answered.
“The woman who figured out in thirty seconds what you hid from me for four months.”
Helena laughed softly.
“Then you should fire your staff.”
Victor’s face tightened.
Silas said, “I’m coming home.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“If you enter Illinois, you will be detained under the emergency guardianship order.”
“Try it.”
“I already have.”
A message appeared on Victor’s secure phone.
He read it.
His face hardened.
“She’s not bluffing.”
Silas stared.
Victor turned the screen.
A court order.
Temporary emergency custody of Matteo Costello awarded to Helena Costello pending evaluation.
Khloe felt physically ill.
“They can just take him?”
“With the right judge,” Victor said.
“With the wrong grandmother,” Khloe replied.
Silas looked toward his son.
Matteo was watching their faces.
He understood none of the spoken words.
But children understood fear.
Especially deaf children surrounded by hearing adults who forgot faces were also language.
Khloe signed.
Your grandma wants you to stay with her.
Matteo immediately shook his head.
Hard.
No.
Silas watched.
“What did he say?”
“He doesn’t want to go.”
Silas crouched.
Khloe taught him the signs.
You stay with me.
Silas repeated them.
Matteo touched his father’s face.
Then signed something Silas didn’t understand.
Khloe did.
Her throat tightened.
“What?”
Khloe looked at him.
“He said, ‘Promise.’”
Silas raised one hand.
Khloe showed him.
Promise.
Matteo hugged him.
Victor turned away.
Then his secure phone vibrated again.
He read another message.
“This just got worse.”
Silas didn’t look up.
“How?”
“Federal agents are waiting at Midway.”
“For me?”
Victor nodded.
Khloe frowned.
“What charges?”
“Money laundering. Racketeering. Conspiracy.”
Silas’s expression didn’t change.
“They’ve tried that before.”
“Not like this.”
Victor showed him the screen.
“There’s a cooperating witness.”
Silas read the name.
His face changed.
“Impossible.”
Khloe asked, “Who?”
Silas looked at Victor.
Victor answered.
“Silas’s chief financial officer.”
Silas went quiet.
Then Khloe noticed something strange.
Victor wasn’t shocked.
“You knew.”
Victor looked at her.
“You knew the CFO was talking.”
“I suspected.”
Silas slowly stood.
“What else are you hiding from me?”
Victor’s phone vibrated a third time.
He looked at it.
Then he swore.
“What?”
Victor looked toward the back of the plane.
“The prisoner is gone.”
They all turned.
The man who had attacked Victor was no longer lying near seat seven.
The restraints sat empty on the floor.
Silas pulled a second weapon from Victor’s ankle holster.
Khloe’s heart slammed.
“Where could he go?”
The jet had no exits.
No hiding places large enough.
Except—
Khloe looked toward the rear lavatory.
Its door was closed.
Silas raised the gun.
Victor approached from the other side.
Khloe pulled Matteo behind a seat.
Silas reached for the handle.
Three.
Two.
One.
He ripped it open.
Empty.
Victor stared.
Then the captain screamed from behind the cockpit door.
A gunshot cracked through the aircraft.
The plane suddenly pitched downward.
And the altitude display began dropping.
May you like
Fast.
---
